by Christine | Sep 6, 2013 | Charitable Remainder Trust, Charity, Estate Planning, Trusts |
Don’t be surprised if your CPA or financial planner starts babbling acronyms: CRUT, CRAT, NICRUT, NIMCRUT, Flip CRUT. Hear him out. The higher federal tax rates that kicked in this year have given all these variants of the four-decade-old charitable remainder...
by Christine | Sep 5, 2013 | Estate Planning |
Money and taxes aside, here are 7 good reasons you need an estate plan … Estate planning is not just about taxes. While it is too easy to focus on taxes, namely avoiding heavy taxation, there is far more to consider when making your own estate plan. Estate...
by Christine | Sep 4, 2013 | Bequest, Entrepreneur, Estate Planning, Gift Law, Gift Tax |
Two years ago, Mr. Harris couldn't scrape together enough funds to start a business that delivered healthy meals. So, he decided to approach his mother for an early bequest. The money would be coming to him anyway, he figured, and she would be able to see...
by Christine | Sep 3, 2013 | Elder Law, Estate Law, Estate Planning, Individual Retirement Accounts (IRA), Retirement, Roth IRA |
Use this versatile account to get tax-free income and a whole lot more. If you are used to a traditional IRA, the Roth IRA may seem peculiar at first when it comes to retirement accounts. So here’s a brief refresher on all the perks of the esteemed Roth IRA. A recent...
by Christine | Aug 30, 2013 | Estate Planning, Family Home, Family Vacation Home |
Should it be maintained for close relatives? Will the next generation use it together or separately? Is it the site of family reunions? If not, will it be available to friends or even renters? Few places prove to be so powerfully uniting for a family as the...
by Christine | Aug 29, 2013 | Estate Planning, Medical Directives |
With back-to-school season upon us, it’s an issue that’s timely to consider. Once your children turn 18, you are no longer entitled to see their medical records and make decisions about their medical treatment—unless they take a few basic estate-planning steps first....
by Christine | Aug 28, 2013 | Uncategorized |
"Fighting over personal property is the match to the tinderbox of emotions," says McManus. "Sometimes feuds start because of lingering resentments over who worked the hardest to take care of Mom or Dad when they were sick or even over who got...
by Christine | Aug 27, 2013 | Elder Care, Elder Law, Medi-Cal Long Term Care, Medicaid, Nursing Home |
These days, patients are often transferred from a hospital to a nursing home to recover. But, then, some never leave. "The only thing I worried about was not getting out," Holmes says now. She kept asking her husband and one daughter: "'You're...
by Christine | Aug 26, 2013 | Asset Protection, Divorce, Marriage, Postnuptial Agreement, Prenuptial Agreement |
Under federal pension law, there are many very strict legal requirements that must be met when a spouse tries to waive his or her rights to the other spouse’s retirement benefits. In this case, those rules weren’t met because the post-nuptial agreement was drafted...
by Christine | Aug 23, 2013 | Estate Planning, GRATs, Trusts |
Clients with swiftly appreciating assets can transfer these assets and escape both gift and estate taxation on almost all of the appreciation using a combination GRAT-life insurance strategy in connection with the steep gift tax valuation discount available today....
